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Rephrase this into still readable context that makes sense

Anonymous

labelPsychology

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Asked: Oct 8th, 2014

Question description

Drug addiction is characterized
by obligation to seek and take the drug. It includes a loss of control when it
comes to limiting drug intake and is unfortunately an emergence of a negative
emotional state, which can sooner or later lead to a pathological state
(addiction). A lot of elements are involved in drug addiction including
allostatic changes seen in the reward system and stress response systems, a
change in these two systems can cause a change in self-regulation. Once this
happens a person’s ability to self-regulate drug intake fails and then leads to
an addiction.

When someone first begins to
take a drug they will experience drug sensitization, which is the opposite of
tolerance and encourages them to take the drug more frequently throughout the
day because during this process you “need less of a drug to experience the same
feelings and experience of reward at previous higher doses” (addiction slide,
7). During sensitization the dopamine being released into the brain causes an
overwhelming sensation of euphoria, which is the “reward” for taking the drug.
This is what has people coming back for more. This could lead to problems
within the reward pathway because although the change in dopamine levels in the
beginning stages creates an enhanced reward experience it also overtime can
leave the reward system vulnerable to permanent changes which changes their
brain causing drug intake to be required for the brain to function like it did
before drug use. When putting together a discrepancy-reducing loop that
typifies initial drug seeking behavior we can conclude that the ideal state of
the individual would be the reward of feeling good. The comparator stage will
then compare the current perception of the individual to his/her ideal state.
If the individual is not at his/her ideal state (feeling good) then they will
start participating in behaviors until they successfully reach it.

Once someone participates in
drug use for an extended period of time they will eventually reach an
allostatic state, which involves their reward pathway, and stress response
pathway. “When an allostatic point is reached in the reward pathway it is also
activating the response systems” (addiction slide, 14) and then this leads to
an allostatic state in the stress response pathway so that you’re always under
a state of stress. This is because once drugs begin to leave the body after a
lot of it has been taken in your body begins to feel the effects which leads to
stress and hyperalgesia (enhanced pain sensitivity). Once these undesirable
feelings set it causes a negative affected state and forces that person to
begin taking the drug again to alleviate the feeling of withdrawal. This
is where the discrepancy-enlarging loop comes into play because it works to
avoid negative feelings and forces drug intake to avoid negative feelings. This
becomes a continuous, vicious cycle within an addict’s life and can be very
hard to break.